Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Republicans are notorious for keeping their old dead wood but kudos to the El Paso Dems who got rid of an 8 term congress critter and replaced him with a pro-marijuana candidate.

A Texas congressional candidate who favors marijuana legalization beat eight-term incumbent El Paso Rep. Silvestre Reyes Tuesday in the Democratic primary for the congressional district closest to Mexico's Ciudad Juarez....
Reyes was less exuberant in defeat, slamming "my opponent who deliberately ran a nasty, dirty campaign."
The race received national attention because of O'Rourke's position in support of marijuana legalization. In his second term as an El Paso city representative, O'Rourke pushed for a resolution calling for a re-examination of the drug war, which has killed tens of thousands in neighboring Mexico over the past decade. He also co-authored a book on the same subject.
The drug war is "a failure," O'Rourke told HuffPost in April, adding that marijuana is "the cornerstone of the cartel economy" and thus fuels the violence in El Paso's sister city.